Journal of Systems and Software

The Journal of Systems and Software publishes papers covering all aspects of programming methodology, software engineering, and related hardware-software-systems issues. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, software development environments and tools, techniques for developing, validating, and maintaining software systems, software architecture and design, global software development, service orientation, agile approaches, mobile, multiprocessing, real-time, distributed, concurrent, and telecommunications systems, software metrics, reliability models for software, performance issues, and management concerns. The journal publishes research papers, state-of-the-art surveys, and reports of practical experience. All articles should consider the practical application of the idea advanced through case studies, experiments, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Occasionally, special issues are devoted to topics of particular interest; proposals for such issues are invited.

Special Issue on Evaluation and Assessment in Software EngineeringDía de Entrega: 2017-09-30This special issue of the Journal of Systems and Software targets at high quality original publications that have not been previously published and are also not under consideration for publication elsewhere. We particularly encourage submissions of extended full research papers accepted for the EASE conference (where at least 30% is original research, not previously published elsewhere).
The areas within Empirical Software Engineering that are target of this special issue include, but are not limited to:
- New ideas pertaining to empirical evaluation of software engineering technologies, methods, and tools, e.g., transferring and applying empirical methods from other disciplines to empirical software engineering
- Infrastructures and novel techniques/tools for supporting any phase of empirical studies
- Empirical studies using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
- Cross- and multi-disciplinary methods and studies
- Experiments and quasi-experiments
- Case studies, action-research, and field studies
- Survey research
- Systematic literature reviews and mapping studies
- Meta-analysis, qualitative and quantitative synthesis of studies
- Replication of empirical studies and families of studies
- Empirically-based decision making
- Evaluation and comparison of techniques and models
- Development and evaluation of empirical prediction systems or software estimation models
- Mining software engineering repositories
- Modelling, measuring, and assessing product and/or process quality
- Simulation-based studies in software engineering
- Assessing the benefits / costs associated with using certain development technologies
- Industrial experience, Software project experience, and knowledge management
- Software technology transfer to the industry

Special Issue on Quality Engineering and Management of Software-Intensive SystemsDía de Entrega: 2017-10-31According to IEEE standards, software-intensive systems are described as "any system where software contributes essential influences to the design, construction, deployment, and evolution of the system as a whole" [IEEE Std 1471:2000] to encompass "individual applications, systems in the traditional sense, subsystems, systems of systems, product lines, product families, whole enterprises, and other aggregations of interest". [IEEE Std 42010:2011]. Examples for software-intensive systems include embedded systems for avionics and automotive applications, large-scale heterogeneous systems, or business applications with special focus on web services. Software quality plays a pivotal role when developing and managing software-intensive systems. Hence, the goal of this special issue is to collect current contributions relating to quality-engineering and management of software-intensive systems.
The topics relevant to this special issue include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- Software engineering for embedded and cyber-physical systems
- Model-based development, components and services
- Software management
- Software process and product improvement
- Software product lines and software ecosystems
- Estimation and prediction in software and systems engineering
- Software engineering and technical debt
- Sustainable software engineering

Special Issue on Software Engineering Education and TrainingDía de Entrega: 2017-12-22The Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T) is now approaching 30 years of longevity. Software engineering education has changed a great deal in that timeframe. In 1986, software engineering education was largely undertaken by industry, with just a few academic software engineering programs in place. The Master of Software Engineering (MSE) reference curriculum changed the landscape of software engineering, resulting in many MSE programs worldwide, not to mention software engineering tracks within Computer Science (CS) masters' programs. In the years that followed, software engineering education emerged at the undergraduate level, with a documented reference curriculum. Software engineering professionalism initiatives resulted in the certification and licensing of software engineers in a number of countries worldwide. We are seeing increased attention to software engineering specialty areas, and many software engineering degree programs have tracks to support these specialties.
On the industry side we are seeing an upheaval in software engineering as we know it. Software engineering is pervasive. Innovations such as Cloud Computing, autonomous vehicles, drones, bioengineering, and other initiatives have made for a rapidly changing landscape. Topics such as software assurance, safety, and reliability have become increasingly important knowledge areas.
As educators we are challenged to keep up with the emerging trends, to identify suitable software engineering techniques, and to incorporate them into our class offerings. We are in a global economy with a software supply chain that can extend across many countries and regions. Each one has their own regulations and laws about safety, security, and privacy. Practicing software engineers change jobs frequently, so the value of in-house training is not as clear as it once was.
In 2017 the conference will to focus on the changes that are taking place in the field, our response to it, and our vision of how we can move forward to meet the ever-increasing demand for qualified software engineers. Furthermore, the 2017 conference has teamed up with the Journal of Systems and Software (JSS) to devote a special issue of the JSS to the select papers from this year's conference.
Authors interested to contribute to the JSS special issue should consider submitting their preliminary work to the CSEE&T.